Sailboat packed with Haitians capsizes, 58 missing

MIAMI, May 4 (Reuters) A sailboat packed with up to 150 Haitian migrants capsized while it was being towed by a police vessel from the Turks and Caicos today, and the US Coast Guard said 20 people had died while another 58 were missing.

The Coast Guard said 63 people had been pulled from the water after the 25 to 30 foot Haitian vessel flipped over around half a mile (1 km) south of Providenciales Island in the Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory, and another 10 were found later clinging to the overturned hull.

But survivors indicated to police that the sailboat had been carrying around 150 people.

Twenty bodies were located after a one and a half hour search that was joined by a US Coast Guard cutter, a US C-130 aircraft and a US Coast Guard helicopter based in the Bahamas.

So far in 2007, the US Coast Guard has rescued or intercepted 909 Haitians fleeing their impoverished and chaotic homeland on the island of Hispaniola for what they think will be a better life abroad, mainly in the United States.

Haitians have long sought to reach the United States.

But the streets of Haiti have been abuzz recently over a deal struck between the United States and Australia that would exchange would-be refugees held at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with those detained by Australia on the Pacific island of Nauru.

Many people in Haiti have interpreted it to mean they could end up in Australia if they are intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard and sent to Guantanamo for processing.

REUTERS SM RK2024